theory and practice
by knuffled
Summary: Percy's a grad student just trying to do some research on marine life when he ends up being a TA under a certain Dr. Annabeth Chase. Percy thinks she's stuck up and frustrating and witty and charming and beautiful- No, wait, he absolutely does not like her. Doesn't he?
1. Chapter 1

All the grad students waited in the room for the professor to arrive, talking quietly amongst themselves. Percy stifled a yawn and ruffled his hair, and he sighed when he stole a quick glance at the clock. 8:02 AM — too early for him to be fully functional. He didn't even have time to grab a cup of coffee since the email he'd gotten stressed the need to be on time.

There was a girl standing next to him, so he tapped her should to get her attention. "So is the professor gonna show up anytime soon or what?" he asked.

She shrugged and said, "Well, I assumed that the prof would be here by now since the email was so anal about punctuality, but it looks like this is another professor that doesn't abide by their own rules."

Percy pulled a face and said, "But we have to work under them all semester."

"You must be a freshman. Don't worry, this is the way things work. You'll get used to it soon enough," she said.

He wanted to say something more when the door burst open and a slender woman entered, walking straight to the front of the room. She set down a briefcase and took out a pair of glasses that she took the time to adjust before facing them.

"Sorry I'm late everyone," she said.

There was an accent to her voice, Percy realized. British maybe? Either way, the thought going through his mind right now was that this woman was way too young to have completed a PhD. What came after that was the recognition that she was ungodly beautiful, and the fact that she wore glasses made him forget his qualms from before.

"I'm Dr. Annabeth Chase, and you all are the graduate students that've been assigned to TA Biology 188 for me," she said, continuing with a twinkle in her eye. "If this isn't the case, then you should leave discreetly so that you don't get embarrassed."

That made everyone in the room smile just a little, which was an impressive feat considering the fact that they were all jaded adults in their early twenties. Still, Dr. Chase couldn't have been much older than him, Percy couldn't help giving her a once over, which confirmed his initial observations. She was gorgeous. She wore a pencil skirt and a white blouse with black polka dots. He imagined helping her out of her blouse, his fingers ghosting over her beautiful alabaster skin as he unclasped what was probably a practical bra. Then he'd slip her out of that pencil skirt, taking his time to kiss along the inside of her thighs and then he'd—

Fuck, pay attention. She was talking.

"—and your discussion section sizes should be about twenty to thirty undergrads, so it shouldn't be unmanageable. Now, I know you're all busy with research and stuff, but I want you to take teaching in discussion seriously," she said.

"I'll be telling you what I'd like you to focus on in section, but you're free to tailor it to what the students want from you. I'd like you to host three hours for office hours instead of the school mandate of two. Like I said, I take teaching very seriously. Now, I think that's most of what I wanted to say, so I'll take any questions or concerns you might have now," she concluded.

Percy wanted to groan, and he raised his hand lazily in the air. She looked at him, giving him silent permission to speak.

"Um, I mean no disrespect, but isn't three hours stretching it? I know you said your understood that we had separate responsibilities, but this feels like it's verging on the impossible," he said.

There were murmurs of agreement in the background, but none of the students spoke up clearly. Even though Dr. Chase was as young as them, there was an air about her that everyone in the room could feel — this woman knew what she wanted, and she expected you to deliver.

"I understand your concern, but I don't intend to change my stance. If you think you're unable to TA for this class because of other responsibilities, then you're more than welcome to leave and TA for a different class," she said, an icy smile on her lips.

A frisson of irritation ran through him. She knew full well that all the TA assignments had finished and that changing to TA a different class was virtually impossible. Giving them the illusion of choice was just to mask the fact that her word was law.

His annoyance compelled him to ask, "When are your office hours, Dr. Chase?"

He could hear the entire room fall pin-drop silent. Fuck, why did he say that? He was so screwed. Still, he stared her down defiantly, making sure that his eye contact never wavered. He expected her to chew him out, but instead her lips curved upwards into a Cheshire cat smile.

"What's your name?"

Percy's throat was bone dry all of a sudden. "Percy Jackson."

"Okay Mr. Jackson, why don't you come to my office hours and we can address your concerns, of which I'm sure you have many more. I host office hours from between 2:00-4:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We can chat then," she said.

He knew he'd lost, and she knew it too. His jaw clenched as he looked at her, and he could've sworn he saw a flicker of amusement and something he couldn't quite place in them, but it happened too fast for him to be sure. Satisfied that she'd beat her opponent into submission, Dr. Chase looked around the room for any further questions, and when no one said anything, she dismissed them.

Percy sighed and walked out the door, ruffling his hair again. The urge to punch a wall tempted him, but he decided to put all thoughts of her behind him for the rest of the day. As he walked to the labs, he stopped when he heard someone call his name.

He turned and saw Dr. Chase walking down the same hallway, her briefcase thrown casually over her shoulder. Percy's jaw clenched. Someone that annoying shouldn't be that attractive. It was like she stepped out of a fashion catalog that showcased business formal haute couture for icy bitches.

"Walk with me," she said.

Percy frowned; she didn't ask if she could walk with him. Instead, she'd ordered him to follow her, so out of spite, he said, "I'll pass on that offer."

She looked at him with that same icy smile and said, "My my, you've got a rebellious streak in you."

When he didn't respond, she asked, "So what do you study here, Mr. Jackson?"

"I'm doing work on the identification and classification of marine organisms, specifically deep sea, to see how they've adapted evolutionarily to survive in extreme, hostile environments," he said, choosing to omit "environments like this one."

"Interesting," she said, and Percy was thrown off because she sounded genuine. "Why marine organisms?"

Percy shrugged. "I've just always been fascinated by them and stuff. As a kid, I'd always bug my mom to take me to aquarium, and I'd watch specials on TV about creepy shit like goblin sharks and angler fish," Percy said. Why am I telling her this?

"Huh, living out your childhood dream, huh?"

"I guess," he said, uncomfortable with the personal turn the conversation had taken. "Anyhow, I've been wondering. How old are you?"

Dr. Chase gave him a look. "Don't you know that there are two things you never ask a woman about? Her age and her weight," she said.

Percy felt his cheeks prickle. "N-No, I didn't mean it like that—" he stammered. The fact that she could consistently outmaneuver and tease him heightened the weird mixture of irritation and attraction that he felt towards her.

She laughed and said, "Don't worry about it. I'm just messing with you. I'm guessing you mean how is someone so young a professor, right?"

When he nodded, she continued. "Well, I went to Oxford at 14, and that helped me finish my dissertation and get my PhD when I turned 22. Fast forward three years, and I get called to be an adjunct here at the Neuroscience Department," she said.

Gorgeous and smart. For fuck's sake, she was only three years older than him.

"That's kind of scary," he admitted.

"Good," she said. "You should fear me, Percy Jackson."

With that, she turned into the adjacent corridor and left him standing there without time to respond. He took a second before he turned to leave when she called out to him again.

"47.6 kilograms," she said.

"What?" Percy asked, turning around.

"You're a smart lad, I'm sure you'll figure it out," she said, a mischievous smile on her lips, before she vanished around a corner.

He stood there for a while, trying to understand what she meant. It was useless. He decided to ignore it and went into the lab room closest to him. It was in the middle of prepping microscope slides that he worked out what she meant. 47.6 kilograms was roughly a 105 lbs, her weight. Now, he knew both her age and weight. He couldn't help the shaky laugh that escaped him. Then he blushed as he wondered why she bothered to tell him that. Maybe she was flirting with him. No, probably just teasing him again. Either way, Percy sighed and rubbed his eyes. It was going to be a long day.

Dr. Chase: 1, Percy: 0.


	2. Chapter 2

It was still dark out when Percy's alarm went off that morning. With a groan, he disabled his alarm and rolled out of bed. After brushing his teeth and washing the grime out of his eyes, he grabbed his gym bag and headed to campus. Being a student meant that he could access the university owned gym for free, and, like all college students, Percy was always happy to get things for free.

When he entered the gym and swiped his school ID across the scanner, he noticed that the place was nearly empty. There were only two other students there, dedicated gym rats that he always saw in the mornings. Percy wasn't a morning person. He usually preferred to exercise at night after he'd had his dinner and finished everything else to let off some steam, but he was seeing his mother later tonight, which meant that he wouldn't be able to get to the gym unless he went now. It was one of the very few things that he did dedicatedly, but it was not really out of a sense of discipline. It was just easier to keep the momentum going after exercising all through high school and his undergrad as a swimmer.

He made his usual rounds after consulting the date on his phone. Saturdays were back and shoulder days. It made more sense now why the gym was so barren. It was a Saturday morning. Almost no college student would be caught dead out of bed before 9:00 AM on a Saturday morning, but here he was. Having the gym all to himself was a plus since there was no wait times to use any of the machines, so he ended up finishing in about 45 minutes instead of an hour like he usually did.

The only thing left to do now was to go for a run and call it a day. Percy made his way over to the treadmills and set a fairly strenuous pace at about seven and a half minutes per mile for four miles. He wasn't a track kid or anything, but he had stamina left over from his swimming days. As he ran, the world seemed to fade from view as his mind went blank, and the only noise he heard was the music coming through his headphones.

It was the recognizable scent of lemon shampoo that brought him back to the real world. His eyes widened as he saw Dr. Chase running alongside him. She was wearing yoga pants and a grey nylon shirt that barely stayed on her elbows, leaving her clavicle totally exposed while also offering him a direct view of the straps of her sports bra. Percy almost whimpered. He didn't know that he had a thing for _necks and collarbones_ for God's sake, but Dr. Chase's skin glistened like freshly fallen snow and her neck was elegant, just like the rest of her.

She noticed him looking and raised her eyebrows, and Percy quickly looked away, blushing like scarlet. He was like a fucking middle schooler stealing glances at his crush. The idea made him cringe a little, so he looked back at her, forcing himself to keep his expression blank. When she noticed him looking again, her lips curved upwards in a faint semblance of a smile.

It was then that he noticed that Dr. Chase was running a six minute mile pace, and it sent a frisson of irritation through him. Without quite knowing what he was doing, he increased the speed on his treadmill till he matched her at a six minute pace. She knew exactly what she was doing because she raised her eyebrows again, as if to say: you think you can handle it? Percy grit his teeth and looked away in response.

It took all of thirty seconds for him to realize that he'd made a serious mistake. He was not at all accustomed to running a six minute mile, and a quick glance at Annabeth's treadmill display told him that she was on her third mile now. It made everything worse when he noticed that she only looked like she was being mildly challenged by the pace as his lungs screamed in protest. He thought swimming would've prepared him for something like this, but he was sorely mistaken. Percy had never been a cross country runner in his life. Fucking Christ, there were fifteen other machines along the window, and she _had_ to pick the one right next to him.

The realization that he was childishly racing a woman with a doctorate to somehow proof that he wasn't inferior to her made him feel absolutely stupid. Yet, it wasn't enough for him to call off his challenge and throw in the towel. After he got acclimatized to his lungs trying to tear themselves in too, he forced himself to hold the pace with her. The fourth mile came and passed, and it was on the fifth mile that black spots started to dance in front of his eyes. Dr. Chase was looking at him with a frown, still only just sweating, and he grit his teeth and soldiered on.

For some reason, his jaw was starting to hurt. In fact, all of his body, his bones seemed to hurt suddenly. The black spots stopped dancing in front of his eyes and stood there instead, gradually blotting his vision. It was as he made to turn off the machine that the world suddenly went black.

:::

"Hey, Percy! Percy!"

Percy opened his eyes and squinted as he saw Dr. Chase hovering over him. His head hurt really badly, and he rubbed it idly as he tried to recollect what had happened. Oh, right, he'd passed out trying to race Dr. Chase. Embarrassment reared its ugly head, and his face turned scarlet as Dr. Chase's look of relief morphed into a frown.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she demanded.

"Um."

Dr. Chase sighed and draped a hand over her face. "I don't think you're dumb enough to not know to run at a pace that you're not comfortable with. You had plenty of time to slow down or stop, and you ignored all the cues that your body was giving you. So now here you are, waking up after falling off your treadmill unconscious," she said.

"That's an accurate summary," Percy said, nodding thoughtfully.

He didn't miss the way her lips quirked upwards before she forced herself to remain stern. She offered him a hand, and even though he wanted to refuse any help from her, he allowed himself this one moment of weakness. His hand was clammy and a flare of despair rose up just as she took his hand in hers. It was, however, quickly replaced by a shiver of something he didn't quite understand as their skin touched. Her hand was soft, he mused.

"You wanna let go of my hand?" she deadpanned.

Percy's eyes widened, and he dropped her hand like it had burned him. "Oh, sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down at his feet.

"You're totally insane. You know that right?"

This managed to elicit a smile out of him. "I've been told," he said.

Dr. Chase looked exasperated and amused at once. "Really, you tried to race me. What are you five?" she asked.

His blush deepened in color. He kept stealing glances at her exposed neck like it was made of loadstone and his eyes were magnets. God, it was like angels had chiseled her body in marble before turning her into a human being. She was perfect, annoyingly so. Her entire body looked like it was carefully assembled by an architect trying to build a perfect human being.

"Hey, eyes up here," she said, scowling.

"I—I wasn't l-looking at your—" he sputtered.

Dr. Chase grinned at him. "I'm just teasing," she said.

"Oh," he said stupidly.

She regarded him like he was a biological sample under her microscope, and he felt horribly exposed. The foolish urge to cover his chest crossed his mind.

"You really do have a rebellious streak in you, don't you?" she mused aloud.

He wasn't sure how to answer that, so he remained silent. "Meet me at the front after you're done showering, yeah?" she asked.

Percy frowned, but he nodded anyways. With that, she turned on her heels and went to the showers, and he followed her after a few seconds. He took a cold shower and stifled a yawn as he waited in front of the gym for Dr. Chase to show up. She walked through the doors a minute later, her hair tumbling down her shoulders now that it was loose from the ponytail it was in before.

"So what's up?" he asked.

"Let's grab some coffee," she said, walking ahead of him.

"What if I had other plans?" he asked, jogging a little to catch up with her, but it made him wince a little. His bones were still sore. His fucking teeth hurt, and it made no sense to him why. Maybe it was because his jaw hurt so badly too.

"Ditch 'em," Dr. Chase said simply.

They found themselves in a Starbucks, silently nursing their respective drinks. To Percy, the silence felt insufferable. What was the point in being quiet if she'd insisted on dragging him all the way out here? Just when he was about to give up and leave, she spoke up.

"Tell me about yourself, Mr. Jackson," she said.

"Percy," he said. "Don't call me Mr. Jackson. It makes me feel old."

This managed to get a smile out of her. "Alright, Percy. I guess you can call me Annabeth outside of work environments, too," she said.

"Annabeth," he said, savoring the way her name sounded in his mouth. "That's a pretty unique name."

Her lips parted as a slight flush colored her cheeks, and Percy was delighted. "O-Oh, thank you," she stammered.

He could only enjoy her brief lapse in composure for a few seconds before she managed to gain control over herself again.

"You still haven't answered my question," she said.

"Oh, well, let's see. I'm visiting my mom tonight and having dinner with her and my step-dad Paul. She took care of me as a single mom until I got to my senior year, which is when she got engaged to Paul, who was my English teacher in junior year. It's something that still amazes me sometimes. I mean, I guess you could say I was a troubled kid or something," he explained.

"I don't doubt that," Annabeth said, grinning as she leaned forward in her seat.

"Rude," Percy said, sticking out his tongue.

Annabeth laughed and took a sip of what was left of her drink. "She sounds like an amazing woman," she said.

Percy nodded earnestly. "She is," he said. "She's the warmest, kindest person I've ever met and stuff. But enough about me. Tell me something about you."

"I'll pass," Annabeth said, coughing surreptitiously.

Percy narrowed his eyes and said, "Hey, that's bullshit."

"Hm, fine," Annabeth said. "I wanted to be an architect when I was growing up."

"So why didn't you?"

Annabeth shrugged and looked out the window. "Mom wanted me to do something biologically related. She was a doctor, and I think she never forgave me for not becoming one myself. It's not that bad though. I like learning about the brain," she said.

"Hmm, tell me something I wouldn't know about the brain," Percy said, resting his chin on his palm.

"People don't realize how malleable their brains are. Most of us grow up thinking that we're born with whatever we intelligence or mental capacity we have now. That's not the case at all. Our environment plays a large role in brain development, and if you're attuned enough with yourself, then you can teach yourself pretty much anything. We're a lot more capable than we think we are," she said.

"Neurons that fire together, wire together," Percy recited.

Annabeth rolled her eyes before leaning forward in her seat. "Okay, I'll tell you something that you don't know: you can never know if anything is real or true," she said.

"What? Bullshit," Percy scoffed. "Science tells us what's real and what's not. Everything we know about the world around us is derived from science. Science discovered the truth about gravity. It tells us what our world is made of, and how we're apart of one of billions of galaxies. Newton gave us calculus. Science is truth."

"All that you perceive," Annabeth murmured, raising her hand. Percy's eyes dilated as her fingers came ever closer to them. He had to force himself not to move when her fingers stopped millimeters away from his pupils, blocking his vision completely.

"Comes from here," Annabeth said before moving her hand and pressing her index and middle finger against the point between his eyebrows. "And is processed here. This is where your truth lies — not out there."

Percy felt himself tremble as she stared into his eyes. The point of contact between her finger and his skin felt like it was inflamed, every atom set alight with some divine fire that made him feel like she was touching his soul itself. As soon as the thought came into his head, he forced herself to shut it down and ignore it. He swatted his hand away, but Annabeth simply regarded him.

He was about to say something when Annabeth pulled her cellphone out and answered it. She talked quickly, in clipped sentences, before shutting the phone off and standing up. Percy stood up too for some reason.

"I have to leave," she said. "Sorry."

"Oh, that's okay," Percy said.

"My roommate might've accidentally burned our apartment down trying to make pancakes," she said, frowning.

Percy grinned. "Well, at least it was for a good cause."

"You're actually insufferable."

"I try," he said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and made her way past him before stopping at the door and turning back to him. "We should do this again sometime," she said. "It was enjoyable."

"It was enjoyable," Percy said, mimicking her speech pattern. He was happy when her face flushed a delicate shade of vermillion.

"Shut up," she muttered.

"It _was_ enjoyable," Percy agreed. "Next time, I'll make you some pancakes, so you can have some that aren't burnt."

"You can make pancakes?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Better," Percy said, grinning. "I can make _blue_ pancakes."

"Is that code for some sort of sex thing?"

Percy groaned. "You just totally ruined something perfectly innocent. They're just blue pancakes and they taste twice as good as normal pancakes. Those are the facts," he said.

"Hmm, I guess I'll have to test that hypothesis," Annabeth said, grinning.

"Well, I suppose you're committing to multiple trials then," Percy said, trying to seem nonchalant even though his skin prickled. "Otherwise you'd never be able to tell whether your results were accurate or not."

Annabeth's eyes widened with surprise, and her smile widened. "I suppose I will," she said, opening the door. "I'll text you later, and we can arrange some times for the first trial of this experiment."

"Sure," he said. "Let me know."

It was only after she left, that he let go of a breath that he didn't realize he was holding. Then he frowned when he realized he didn't have her phone number. He sighed and went to throw their coffee cups away when he noticed something written along the side of Annabeth's cup. With a goofy smile, he threw both of the cups away, but not before committing the phone number she'd written on the cup to memory.


End file.
